Oct 23 Say something brilliant

Even on a platform like Svbtle that strips away many of the bells and whistles, there’s an inherent pressure when you see the text Write post here. It might as well read: Say something brilliant.

Everyone wants to write the next great blog post that gets a million hits. But you’re conditioned to feel that if you don’t have a strong opinion, something that you’d fight to the grave defending, why bother? Do your words even matter?

That conditioning does make some sense. Everyone is so busy in today’s world – at least, that’s what I keep hearing repeated over and over, despite how much time people spend on Facebook and Twitter every day – that if you don’t have indisputable value to add, you’re not worth anyone’s time.

An entrepreneur doesn’t always have to be building the next billion dollar company. A project you enjoy that pays the bills is just fine, too.

If you’re a filmmaker, you don’t have to try to be the next Christopher Nolan. Your first movie doesn’t have to be Memento – it wasn’t his first, either.

This isn’t to say you should shoot low and sacrifice quality or effort. It’s just a reminder that it’s ok to not always be prolific. Don’t waste time trying to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, be the first you. (Now that’s a Hallmark card if I’ve ever written one.)

Sometimes being entertained is all that matters. There’s room in this world for films like Pacific Rim and Upstream Color to coexist. Unwinding six seconds at a time on Vine is a great way to end the day, even if the app doesn’t have a billion users.

One thing I find is the more I write, the more creative I feel. Ideas flow a little more easily when I’m regularly in the mindset of processing and recording thoughts. But it’s intimidating when you launch a blank document. There’s pressure when you feel like every post needs to be the next hot thing that gets tweeted by everyone.